Hi,
I've started playing Grid online just recently and I kinda wonder if any of you actually consider switching to NFS Shift and leave this game behind. I mean, I got to try Shift out and I didn't really like it better. Sure it has more content and better graphics but the gameplay just didn't feel good so I'm going to stick to Grid for as long as I can.
Also, if I'd get the dlc cars for Grid can I use them in online play or are they only for race day therefore not much of use?

I'm not trying to start some huge argument here... but I see this same "either/or" stuff in forum after forum and it's pointless and drives me nuts.  People bash "Call of Duty 4" and "Halo 3" because they like/play some other less popular shooter... or people bash "Over G Fighters" because they like/play "Ace Combat 6".  Here's a thought... PLAY EM ALL!  Why people insist on asking these questions as if you can only play or like one or the other is completely beyond me.

But to answer your question... plenty of people are gonna buy and play "Shift" because it's new and "Grid" has been out for 2 years already.  It doesn't mean "Grid" isn't a great game and it doesn't mean "Shift" is a great game... and it doesn't mean they're "leaving 'Grid' behind".  Personally, I have both and right now I play "Shift" more than "Grid" for precisely the reason I mentioned above... but overall I still think "Grid" is the better game.  And I think you're one of the only people I've heard say "Shift" has better graphics than "Grid"... of course it's subjective, but still.

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Me: http://www.Myspace.com/JMCatrow
My Band: http://www.Myspace.com/ByDemonsBeDrivenBand

I'm not trying to bash Shift. I'm just ranting that soon there might be too few people online to enjoy Grid's multiplayer especially because of Shift and Forza 3. But then again, maybe I jumped on board too late to catch the major glory of Grid. The new games all have only circuit races which I hate. I want to play games with other race modes like drift and touge or Burnout's freeburn. What will I get to play if people will all move on to circuit racers?

I think people that like Grid will still play it up until the next one comes out... but there will definitely be no shortage of peeps playin Shift/Forza3.  I feel ya on missing Grid's heyday... I just got a 360 this past xmas and didn't get Grid until about 2 months ago.  Personally, I think Grid/Dirt are the best racers available... I know you said you don't like circuit racers, but you really should try Dirt and/or Dirt 2... they're both amazing and made by the same people that make Grid!  Need For Speed: Shift has Drift, but honestly, it's THE worst Drift-mode I've ever played... the drifting in NFS:Carbon and NFS:ProStreet were better.  It also has Togue, but it's called "Driver Duel".  By the way, Carbon has both Drift/Togue and isn't circuit based (if by circuit-based you mean actual race tracks... if you mean circuit as in multi-lap races instead of point-to-point races, it has both).  Another great non-circuit racer is Midnight Club: Los Angeles, it has point-to-point and laps, but no actual tracks.  You're racing through a city with full traffic, cops, and all... I haven't seen Drift in it, but I haven't played it extensively yet either.  And then there's always the Project Gotham Racing series... which has lap races, but not actual tracks and it's much more arcade'ish than the rest mentioned and has less-than-stellar graphics.  Oh, and I don't know if you're familiar, but Burnout: Paradise is a vastly different game from the other Burnout's... it's more like Midnight Club and Need For Speed: Carbon where you cruise a city-scape looking for events and races... if you prefer that sort of racer.

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Me: http://www.Myspace.com/JMCatrow
My Band: http://www.Myspace.com/ByDemonsBeDrivenBand

And you can always use these forums to set up specific times to play with people... hell, I've never even played the multiplayer on Grid yet, so I'll play with ya sometime if ya want.

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Me: http://www.Myspace.com/JMCatrow
My Band: http://www.Myspace.com/ByDemonsBeDrivenBand

me im gonna stay with GRID the longest i can

Yes, I can't stand race tracks. I think that Midnight Club LA might be what I'm looking for although I've heard it's very hard so I still don't know. I play games to relax and not to stress and get angry. I like street racing therefore the previous NFS games were good for me.

I've tried Dirt 2 demo but since I use the steering wheel it's not easy to play it and with the controller the car just refuses to steer so easily and I just whack out of track like a hippo on ice. It seems to me that the more a game tries to have more 'realistic' controls the less the car actually turns which is far from reality. This was especially noticable in Forza 2 but in Grid I don't really feel this kind of problem. Grid has a pretty good driving model and I hope they will make more dlc to prolong this game's life for those who want to stay with it as long as possible.

I have NFS Carbon but I don't like story mode so I'm going to get Undercover to enjoy the street racing and newest cars.

It would be great to race with you guys so if you wanna play then add me and we can set up some race. Just mind that I'm not that good and I live in Europe.

Midnight Club can be a bit tough... but you can change the difficulty for each race... so I'm sure it's not so bad on the easier ones.  It's got really amazing customizations, along the same lines as NFS:Carbon, but much, much better and even more detailed.  And it's made by Rockstar, which if you've ever played Grand Theft Auto IV... you know what amazing city-scapes they create and MCLA is no different... it's an amazing recreation of Los Angeles.  And it has a free DLC that's over a gigabyte in size!

I've never played NFS:Undercover, but I want to.  Alot of people don't like the next-gen NFS games, but I do.  I still haven't played Most Wanted either, other than the demo... and by that you can tell the game is alot like Carbon... at least gameplay-wise.  I also wanna try Burnout: Paradise... I liked the demo of that one as well.  I have Revenge... it's a very hard game to get achievements on haha.

I agree that Grid has the best driving physics... but games like Forza and all are actually pretty realistic in that in real life you cannot hang turns at 90mph, fishtail around every turn and expect to win... you have to actually use racing-sense and slow down first and accelerate out of the turn... they're not arcade'ish mash the gas and hang-on type of games.  I love Forza 2, I'd love it much more if it had ***-pit view, which is why I especially can't wait for Forza 3!!!  So far since I've had a 360, I haven't really met a racing game I didn't like... except maybe for Ridge Racer 6.  It's an ok game, but much too arcade-style for me.

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Me: http://www.Myspace.com/JMCatrow
My Band: http://www.Myspace.com/ByDemonsBeDrivenBand

What a bunch of pansy's... ***'ing out c-o-c-k in c-o-c-k-p-i-t... grow up people.

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Me: http://www.Myspace.com/JMCatrow
My Band: http://www.Myspace.com/ByDemonsBeDrivenBand

Well, if the MC: LA is playable even for non-hardcore players then I might give it a chance. It's been some time since it came out so I should be able to get it for a bargain price. Besides, I love Los Angeles - been living there for some time.

I'm still getting Undercover first, though. I think that the reason why people didn't like it is that it's not much of a change from MW, Carbon or Underground. But I haven't played those much so I don't really mind. The only thing is that it doesn't have Subaru which is my favorite car but at least it has the sweet Lancer Evo X so I'll get over it somehow.

Burnout Paradise is fun because even though it has some major flaws it allows you to not care about the actual driving and just boost into everything you see. Simply a crazy wacko crash-fest which should be loathed by all racing simulator lovers. But it's good if you ever felt like smashing your opponents into something and leaving their wrecks behind you.

I've done a lot of fast driving in the real life and I think that the racing games are still kinda false in their interpretation. In Forza 2, for example, when you're going 100mph it rather looks and feels like 50 in the real life. So while taking corners in 90mph in the real world might be hard it still doesn't happen that you just make a wide arc out of the track when you try to make a sharp turn. In the worst care you would spin out but you would still not go straight without the ability to turn your car. What I'm trying trying to convey with my poor english is that in the real life cars are not as stiff as in the games. Grid is the closest because if you wanna make a high speed turn you just drift through it if you have a low grip or just take the turn easily if you have the racing super grip tires. If you mess up you go into spin at the very least but the car definitely doesn't go straight or in a wide arc as in the other games. The most striking case of this not-turning is Dirt 2 where - unlike in other Codemasters' rally games - you can't just drift through the turn so easily and you have to actually slow down. Correct me if I'm mistaken because I played only the demo.

I hope they will release demo for Forza 3 so I could see if the driving model is different from 2. I'm not gonna buy a game that might not suit me, regardless of the hype and especially since it contains race track racing which I find very boring. I also played Grid's demo before I bought it. Demos are good. And it would be also good if they released them before the actual games so I could get the collector's editions.

And yeah, the content filter needs to grow up, lol.

Well, I don't know what you consider a bargain-price... but I still had to pay $29.99 (i think, may have even been $34.99) for MC:LA at GameStop... and I just got it about two weeks ago.

One thing to keep in mind about the Dirt games is that racing on dirt is much different than pavement.  You're pretty much "drifting", at least slightly, at all times... but it's definitely not annoying or anything like that.  There's still pavement in rally racing (and the games), but with dirt tires and suspension and all, you'll still never get anywhere near the traction or driving that you're probably used to.  Of course everyone is different, but I honestly can't imagine any racing-game fan not liking Dirt or Dirt 2... especially if you like Grid.  Despite the obvious pavement/dirt difference, the physics are brilliant, the speed and gameplay is superb, and you can immediately tell that they're made by the same folks.  And in Dirt 2 they brought in the "Flashback" feature from Grid... which is nice for me cause I actually got Grid before the first Dirt, which didn't have the "Flashback's" (I guess they hadn't come up with it yet), and because the games look/feel so similar I was CONSTANTLY fighting the urge to hit the "Back Button" and use a "Flashback" haha!

Since it's kinda counter-intuitive, I don't know how many games you may have played/owned where you didn't like the demo, but I've encountered that scenario quite a few times.  They're often not a good representation (one glaring example would be "Hitman: Blood Money") of the game.  Also, often times demos are put together before the game is finished and polished... so they're often flawed and/or not a good representation of the game as a whole.  But I haven't played the Dirt 2 or original Dirt demos.  Maybe they're just not for you, but if ya don't wanna commit to buying Dirt 2 for full-price, you could probably find the original Dirt for around $17.99 or so, or maybe rent it.  I really can't imagine a racing-game fan not liking these games... CodeMaster's definitely knows what they're doing!!!

I know what you mean about the lack of a sense of speed in Forza2... I noticed that too, but I still love the game.  But for Forza3, again, I wouldn't put too much stock in the demo.  And I feel ya on the "wide arc" thing too, but I much prefer that over constantly spinning-out.  Overall, there's only so much they can do, they're just video games.  Until the day when you've got an actual virtual-reality-style car and/or cockpit model to sit in and be able to actually use peripheral vision... they can only do so much, haha.

Hey, you mentioned having a driving wheel, right?  How do you like em?  I wanna get one, but I'd like to try one somewhere first, y'know?  Do you have the Microsoft one, or a third-party one?  One of the workers at GameStop told me about another driving wheel (but dammit I can't remember where he said it was sold!) that was considerably more expensive (around $300!!!), but it was a replica of a Porsche, using actual Porsche leather and it actually had a working clutch and manual 6-speed shifter! 

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Me: http://www.Myspace.com/JMCatrow
My Band: http://www.Myspace.com/ByDemonsBeDrivenBand

You can barely ever trust demos!

Bargain price for me is when the price is at least 50% of the price when it came out. This is true now as MC: LA was about 600 SEK when it came out, now it's about 300.

I might give Dirt a second chance, especially the second one, and we'll see. It's just that I've played Colin McRae rally games since the first one and this just feels different. So you're right that Dirt might not be fore me. I loved the previous CMRs much better, especially the fourth one (rainy Japan, oh yeah!). Demo for the first Dirt felt much better than the second one but then again I think the problem lies somewhere else. Since you get to drift like crazy in Dirt you need to see the direction to where your car is headed. This is of course impossible if you're playing using the inside camera because you always look directly in front of the car. So you need to have actually the outside camera so you could see the area around you car to steer it well. This outside camera, however, doesn't really feel right for driving with a steering wheel. So to make any sense of it... with the steering wheel you need to play from the inside view but you don't get to see where you're going while on the outside look you can't drive properly with the steering wheel.

Yeah, I know that demos can be faulty but it's still better than nothing. I mean, how drastically would they change the driving model say a month or two before the game's realease? I personally find demos very helpful in order to know how to spend my hard-earned money.

Yes, I have a steering wheel. I have the official one by Microsoft and I paid for it about $145. Sweden is so expensive it hurts T_T
I have only two issues with it. It has no analog sticks which is painful in all games to some degree. You can't aim the cursor around the map in TD: Unlimited, NFS Carbon or Burnout Paradise or view your car from different angles. The other issue is the precision control. In TD:U I had problems keeping the car going exactly the way I wanted, especially when steering between the civilians. This problem has slightly projected itself into Grid but doesn't get in the way much. Sometimes the car just shakes a bit and the wheel feels a bit loose. But that's all. I would still say it's good, though.

I wish I kept GRID over buying NFS:Shift. Shift does have slightly better driving physics IMO, but that's it. I hate Shift's over aggressive AI (as you are awarded for Aggressive driving), it's not realistic to a sim racer. GRID has the damage (can't even get a steering pull on Shift) and ability to kill the car. Grid has the better career progression (the driver 'leveling' is stupid, it doesn't change anything... racing games are not an RPG, they are a simulation). Shift will be getting traded in soon for prepayment for Forza 3. PS: also don't know what I will do with racing games without a rewind\flashback feature... it's way nicer then mess up, restart, repeat until 1st place win.

Well, I guess you level up to unlock new stuff, right?

I think that the rewind option just replaces the sands of time syndrome from Prince of Persia when players always felt an urge to spill some sand to reverse time when something went wrong in the real life.

I think the 'wide arc' stuff you we were trying to explain is what is commonly known as understeer, where the front wheels have insufficient grip so the car struggles to take the turn. To be honest, it's one of the few things Forza got right in a way, though as with everything else, they had the idea, but turning into a game feature ended up half-baked. I like Forza's customisation aspects, but it's not a very realistic driver, and I definitely agree about the sense of speed. As unrealistic as it is, I much prefer playing Grid. Something in the story of the career seasons and the genuine sense of fun you get when racing makes it a great game, spoiled only by the legions of idiots on multiplayer. I can't really comment on Shift as I haven't yet played it, a lot of people seem to hate it, but then they're praising Forza as if it's some kind of sim-legend.

I think really, I agree with what was said earlier. Just play everything you enjoy.

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87 Toyota MR2, 92 Nissan RS13, 87 Toyota MR2, 91 Mazda MX5 : NurburgMotorsport.com - Race car preparation and storage

What's the problem with multiplayer? I've played only a couple of times but it seemed ok. I mean, I mostly played demolition derby and I've been killed pretty much soon after the start but besides that I didn't have any problems.

The problem is that you usually get killed pretty close to the start, whether you're in demolition derby or an open-wheel championship...Plus, in 3 months of playing Grid online, I've only ever played either toruing cars or demolition derby. I've never been in a single server that has chosen anything but those options.

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87 Toyota MR2, 92 Nissan RS13, 87 Toyota MR2, 91 Mazda MX5 : NurburgMotorsport.com - Race car preparation and storage

 DjFIL wrote:

Shift does have slightly better driving physics IMO, but that's it.

Could not disagree more.  The "supercars" are a lot better, but down in Tier 1 & 2, those cars have the sorriest traction I've ever seen.  If you can come across an unmodified production car that breaks traction through EVERY gear... I'll kiss your quantum singularity (yes, I wrote the q-s myself haha).  It's nearly impossible to keep the Nissan 350 even on the track... it's more than a lil' ridiculous.  Overall I still like the game, but only if I play it on the beginner's driving levels, i.e. turning on all the traction control, anti-lock breaks, and all that stuff.  They test your ability with the first track and they put me on "experienced", but there's no way I can play the game that way... just no way.

But back to the anti-lock breaks and all... that's one thing that EVERY driving sim has wrong.  The more you pump up the difficulty, the less assists you can use... that's not realistic at all.  It's not as if when you get to the pros they take out the anti-lock breaks and traction control out of your car, haha.

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Me: http://www.Myspace.com/JMCatrow
My Band: http://www.Myspace.com/ByDemonsBeDrivenBand

Hey, I actually also miss the other disciplines online. My favorite is touge and pro tuned but I'd play anything besides touring cars and formulas. So if you guys want to play other than the 'popular' disciplines then add me to friends and we can race. I'm a dirty player only when racing the computer. Against humans I give it my best shot to fight fair and square. Oh yeah, and I have the 8-ball installed so keep that in mind because I tend to select the new cars, especially the Evo X.

Btw, you could say that Shift has broken my heart because although it has fancy graphics and great selection of cars the gameplay still can't beat Grid. If I have to play NFS with the cars I love I'd chose Undercover regardless of the driving realism. I play games for fun, not to struggle with them.

As for the difficulty, that's a different thing than a driver's level. You increase the difficulty to make the game harder, not to make you a pro.

 JMCatrow wrote:

but down in Tier 1 & 2, those cars have the sorriest traction I've ever seen.

They tried to make these cars all drifty.  It's kinda stupid to have a SEAT Cupra hatchback drifting around tight turns, I agree.

 JMCatrow wrote:

 It's not as if when you get to the pros they take out the anti-lock breaks and traction control out of your car, haha.

...erm, well actually...

Things like ABS reservoirs and TCM systems add un-necessary weight. They're designed primarily as driver-aids, drivers in motorsport generally frown upon their use. They don't remove them in all disciplines, F1 is probably a good example as TCM was only removed in the new regulations for this season. But particularly at a grass-roots level, ABS/TCM are very rare in motorsport.

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87 Toyota MR2, 92 Nissan RS13, 87 Toyota MR2, 91 Mazda MX5 : NurburgMotorsport.com - Race car preparation and storage

Hmm... I'm starting to agree with you guys too... now I really am done with NFS:Shift and will trade in towards Forza 3 with it. Will wait until GRID 2 to return to this series though.

 JMCatrow wrote:

I've never played NFS:Undercover, but I want to.  Alot of people don't like the next-gen NFS games, but I do.  I still haven't played Most Wanted either, other than the demo... and by that you can tell the game is alot like Carbon... at least gameplay-wise.  I also wanna try Burnout: Paradise... I liked the demo of that one as well.  I have Revenge... it's a very hard game to get achievements on haha.

I was personally really disappointed with Undercover. I thought it was the worst of the series since it moved from the PsOne to the PS2 Xbox1 e.t.c. Most Wanted, Carbon and ProStreet were all brilliant. Paradise is great, but u need to Download new content every few months. Its free can be hard to cope withif u have limited broadband. I need to get back into burnout

GRID is my favourite racer on the 360, and thats saying alot...I've got the NFS games mentioned above Forza 2 and PGR 4. I hope people do variate between the new games coming out and come back to GRID every now and then, cause there's no way I'm leaving GRID behind.

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From the joy of play to the thrill of victory

Just a side note: If you wanna play Burnout Paradise then make sure you play with people you know because mostly in open games it's a great chaos. Some people are trying to make the challenges but some just drive around and crash everything. It's kinda uncomfortable.

What all racers do you guys have?  I have all 4 PGR's, both Forza's, Grid, both Dirt's, NFS Shift and Carbon, Burnout: Revenge, RacePro, Ridge Racer 6, Test Drive: Unlimited, Midnight Club: LA, and Stuntman: Ignition, if ya consider that last one a racer.  I also had Wheelman for a night, while it was decent, it wasn't worth the $35 I paid for it, so I returned it the next day and put the money towards NFS:Shift.  I'll probably pick it up again someday if I see it in the bargain bin or something.  I only got it cause the Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena kicked all sorts of quantum-singularity and I was hoping that maybe this other Vin Diesel game would be just as great... but it wasn't.

Anyway, I still need the multiplayer achievements on every one of those racers... so if any of you wanna play any of them, let me know.  Only I don't have PGR3 here with me right now... a friend is borrowing it, but I'll probably have it back soon.  I also like the racing on GTA4 and GTA4: The Lost & Damned.

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Me: http://www.Myspace.com/JMCatrow
My Band: http://www.Myspace.com/ByDemonsBeDrivenBand

Hey TimberWolf... what type of game is "Infinite Undiscovery"?  I've never heard of it.

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Me: http://www.Myspace.com/JMCatrow
My Band: http://www.Myspace.com/ByDemonsBeDrivenBand

Wow, you have a lot of racing games!
I have the games shown in my profile. But to save your time: PGR4, Burnout Paradise, Grid and today I've ordered MC: LA and Undercover. I can't really put much money into games so this would be my last collection addon for a long time. I also have Carbon and TD: Unlimited on my 360 that I bought while in the USA but I don't have a golden membership on its LIVE profile. I'll probably get Ridge Racer 6 some day too just because of nostalgia from my Playstation 2 days. I also had Forza 2 and Shift once but got rid of them fast. I also play Gears or War 2 online but it's pretty frustrating so I stick with racing games these days.

Hi I hav'nt got ,Grid,NFS,Forza but I have ordered them all and intend to enjoy them all your comments are accurate and sensible just enjoy the games

I wouldnt waste my money on NFS: Shi_t